Author: MOOREHEAD, CAROLINE
Title: Dancing to the precipice : Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution
Description: London: Chatto and Windus 2009. 1st Edition. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dust-wrapper. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight. bright. clean and especially sharp-cornered. Physical description: xiv. 480 p. [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Includes inscriptions from previous owner. Summary: Born Lucie Dillon. to a half-French mother and an Anglo-Irish father. her world was Versailles and the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. She married a French aristocrat. and narrowly survived the French Revolution. escaping to America at the time of Washington and Jefferson. Here. she lived a life of milking cows and chopping wood. having previously been accustomed to the lavish life of the French court. Returning to France prematurely. Lucie had to flee again. this time to England. where she took up sewing in order to support herself and her family. Repeatedly in the right place at the right time. Lucie saw the Battle of Waterloo. the fall of Napoleon and the return of Louis XVIII. and the Restoration.She was an outstanding diarist and a remarkable woman. who witnessed one of the most dramatic and brutal periods of history. playing the part of observer. commentator and. often. participant. For the last years of her life she was ambassadress to Holland and the Kingdom of Sardinia. Her friends included Wellington. Lafayette. Alexander Hamilton. Talleyrand and Madame de Stael. She died. aged 83. in Pisa. Mixing politics and court intrigue. social observation and everyday details about food. work. illness. children. manners and clothes. Caroline Moorehead paints a vivid and memorable portrait of an era - lasting three-quarters of a century - that saw the fortunes of France. as well as those of Lucie herself. rise and fall and rise again. Both as a witness and as a survivor. Lucie is a superb subject for an exemplary biographer. Biography: Caroline Moorehead is the biographer of Bertrand Russell. Freya Stark. Iris Origo and Martha Gellhorn. Well known for her work in human rights. she has published a history of the Red Cross and a book about refugees. Human Cargo. She lives in London and Italy. Fluent in French and Italian. her researches for this book have uncovered letters. documents and portraits. many never previously examined. Subject: La Tour du Pin Gouvernet. Henriette Lucie Dillon marquise de 1770-1853. Nobility — France — Biography. History — Revolution. 1789-1799 — Social life and customs — 1789-1815. United States — Social life and customs — 1783-1865. Biography & autobiography. Genre: Bibliography. Biography. Illustrated text. Weight in Kg appr.:

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